ART & DESIGN

No Stone Unturned

Oct. 17, 2015

During a flawless fall day at the Storm King Art Center, in Hudson Valley, I was walking by a low, curving stone fence when a friend called out, “Wait! This is something.” She’d acted as our de facto guide all afternoon, because I hate unfolding and refolding maps and the Storm King app crashed the second I opened it on my phone. “It’s that artist who makes walls out of stones.” She hesitated. “They’re pretty big … sometimes?” She was struggling to describe the work of the artist Andy Goldsworthy, and it’s not hard to see why. The art at Storm King can at times feel very big, overly loud, and at odds with the plainspoken natural beauty of the rolling hills, and here was this unassuming, undulating little stone fence that seemed to start and end where the trees that background it came from—the dirt. This kind of Thoreauvian, blink-and-you-miss-it naturalist intervention has been Goldsworthy’s thing for decades, and why his new monograph is called Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Works 2004 – 2014. It really helps to have someone point him out to you.

“Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Works 2004 – 2014” is available now through abramsbooks.com.

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. HEDGE CRAWL AND WALK. DAWN. FROST. COLD HANDS. SINDERBY, ENGLAND. 4 MARCH 2014. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. SYCAMORE LEAVES EDGING THE ROOTS OF A SYCAMORE TREE. BERRYDOWN FOUNDATION, HAMPSHIRE. 1 NOVEMBER 2013. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. TREE PAINTED WITH BLACK MUD. COLLECTED FROM NEARBY BOG. DUMFRIESSHIRE, SCOTLAND. 21 MARCH 2014. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. HAZEL TREE. SMEARED WITH BLACK EARTH. RUBBED WITH CHALK. BOTH FOUND NEXT TO THE TREE. BERE MILL, HAMPSHIRE. 13 APRIL, 13 JUNE 2004. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. POPPIES. IN FLOWER AFTER RECENT HEAVY RAINS. COLLECTED FROM FIELDS. LAID ON STEPS. HELD WITH WATER. CAÑETE, SPAIN. 7 JULY 2014. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. CURVED STICKS LAID AROUND A RIVER BOULDER. TOOK LONGER TO FIND THE STICKS THAN TO MAKE THE WORK. WOODY CREEK, COLORADO. 16 SEPTEMBER 2006. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

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ANDY GOLDSWORTHY. ICICLES FROZEN TO ICICLES. MIDDAY SUN WARMING THE BANK ABOVE WHERE I WORKED. CAUSING SOME ICE TO MELT AND FALL. CONTINUED TO FREEZE IN THE SHADOWS. COLD OVERNIGHT. DUMFRIESSHIRE, SCOTLAND. 8 JANUARY 2010. © ANDY GOLDSWORTHY